[FM22] Skinning & Graphics Knowledge Base

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2021 - Skinning, Modding and Graphics Knowledge Base

Welcome to the latest version of the Skinning, Modding & Graphics Knowledge Base.

This thread should over time contain links to the most important and useful threads in this sub-forum, however what I have also been doing over the last few years is tagging any interesting or informative threads with a skinning tag, so whilst I try and build up the content in this thread if you cannot see the answer to your question here or you are just starting out skinning then have a browse through the forum and open up any of the threads with a skinning tag which should give you some useful if random bits of skinning knowledge, whilst clicking on a tag should take you to any other threads that have the same tag so that should give you a starting set of threads to have a look through.

Like in the past this thread will be split into several parts;

How To Create Graphics

Skinning Guides

Links To Useful Threads

Links To Useful Threads from Previous Versions

Troubleshooting

 

 

If you want the FM2021 thread then see this thread

[michaeltmurrayuk]

How To Create Graphics

 

Contents

1. How To Create A Config File

2. How To Create Standard Football Manager Logos

3. How To Create Player Faces

4. How to Create 3D Kits for FM2018

Some of the guides may be fairly old but the information in them still applies.

After you have created your graphics please follow the Graphics & Skin Installation Guide thread to get your newly created graphics into the game.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Skinning Guides

Football Manager Skinning Guide

The following guides will talk you through the basics of creating a skin, and whilst they were written for previous versions, the basic information still applies and should be enough to get you started.

Also note that whilst Football Manager Touch is now a separate game the information applies to both that and the Full Mode Version (though only to the PC versions), you just need to remember if you are using the Touch Mode to make sure you are editing the Touch files and putting them where the Touch Mode is looking, also some of the file locations may have changed so you might need to go looking for some of them.

Football Manager 2019 - How To Extract The Default Game Files

Football Manager 2018 Skinning Guide Part 1: How to Extract Default Files & Understanding File Structure
Football Manager 2018 Skinning Guide Part 2: The Basics
Football Manager 2018 Skinning Guide Part 3: Changing the Font Settings
 

Football Manager 2015 Skinning Guide Part 3: Changing the Text Colours

Football Manager 2015 Skinning Guide Part 4: Editing the Skin Graphics

Football Manager 2015 Skinning Guide Part 5: Editing the xml files

 

Skinning Resources/Mods for Skinners

The following links provide instructions on how to modify certain screens, these links are primarily for skin makers as applying the mods requires you to edit the files, though end-users can still use them you'll just have to create the finished files from the instructions yourself rather than having a ready to use file to download.

I've also linked to some Guides from previous versions as the basic information in those guides should still apply, though you won't be able to just download the linked files for FM2019 as some of the coding will have changed as will some of the file locations but they should be enough to get you started.

[FM18][GUIDE] How To Replace the Pitch Textures

 

[FM17][GUIDE] How To Stop the Blurring Effect

[FM16 Guide] How to Create and Add Trophy Images
[FM16 Guide] How To Customize Match Player Ratings Screens
[FM16 Guide] How To Recolour the Star Ratings

[FM15 Guide] How to Add an Image to the Match Pitch Screen
[FM15 Guide] How To Increase Transparency of Screens
[FM15 Guide] Editing the League Table
[FM15 Guide] How to Edit the Sidebar
[FM15 Guide] How to Add Content to the Action\Menubar

 

Skinning Mods for End-users and Skinners.

The following links provide mods for end-users, these are files that just need downloading and putting in the correct location with next to no editing of files needed by the end-user. If you are creating a skin then you can still include the mods with your skin if you get the permission of the mod creator.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Links to Useful Threads

Below are links to threads that contain useful information for Football Manager 2022, note that these threads are not guides so it is best to read the entire thread first as the information may be spread throughout the thread.

Player Role Drop Menu (Tactics Screen)

Processing Bar (Save/Load)

Transfer and Loan Status on Player Overview Personal Details Panel

Increase Player Picture Size on Player Overview Attributes Panel

Changing Knowledge Bar Colours

Re-enable Sidebar Graphic

Remove Price Tab Graphic

How To Add new options to the list of selectable custom columns

Tactical Familiarity Colour

Remove Club Colours from Player Popup Profile

Player Value Missing on Player Profile Screen (Due To Using FM21 files)

Tactics Overview Pitch - Player box and Top Left Icon Colours

FM22 - All Player Icons Preview Pack

Enabling Last XI on Club Overview Screen

 

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Links to Useful Threads from Previous Versions

Below are links to threads that contain useful information from previous versions of FM, again you may need to modify some of the information in the older threads but the information in them should give you a starting place, though I haven't had chance to check them for FM22 so some of the information may no longer apply.

For the moment you'll want to check out the links to the older Knowledge Base/Bible threads from the below link:

 

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Troubleshooting

Below are some common things to check if something has gone wrong with your skinning.

Game Files

• For best results use files from the version of FM you are making content for. To make things easier the current versions of the Resource Tool now preserve the data SI last modified a file so if a file has been modified in the last year use that version not your old one.
• After a patch has been released, check to see if you need to update your game files.

Skin Makers

• The name you use for the skin_name filed in the skin_config has to exactly match the name of the folder for your skin, to save problems copy and paste the name.
• Also for best results keep this name as simple and short as possible, as the game doesn't always like special characters or long names.
• If uploading to the Steam Workshop ensure the name you give the fmf file in the upload panel is the name you use on the Steam Workshop, if these names are different you may not be able to update your skin.
• Also only include files you have edited with your skin, if you haven't touched a file then you don't need to include it as the game will read the default file and this also reduces the number of files you need to check and updated after a patch.

XML File Errors

• It is incredibly easy to make mistakes in the xml files, balancing or closing tags is the easiest mistake to make.
• Rather than use notepad try to use a program that understands the code or at least adds colour to the various parts as this makes it a lot easier to read your code.
• A good and free program to use is Notepad++ and if using this a couple of handy plugins to use (can be added from the plugins menu) are Compare (allows you to compare two files side-by-side) and XML Tools (flags any errors you make).
• Another thing to do is to turn on the sound when skinning, as if the game detects an error when reloading the skin it will make an error noise.
• Whilst we no longer get the error popup you can still access the log files from this folder: C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\AppData\Local\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\Logs